Learn how to keep your people motivated to get best out of them

1. Enrichmentors Business Review
Keeping your people motivated
Insights while working for Hindustan Unilever,
Johnson & Johnson and Volkswagen
April 2013

2. Enrichmentors Business Review April 2013
What is in this Issue
From The Editor’s Desk
Arun Singhal is the Founder and Principal Mentor & Managing Partner of Enrichmentors India.
He founded Enrichmentors in 2007 to help Small & Medium Enterprises in India improve their
business though consultation, coaching and counseling. He has done his Post Graduate
Diploma in Management in Marketing and Finance from Indian Institute of Management
(IIM), Bangalore, India. Arun worked for Dumex, Johnson & Johnson and Unilever in India
and Asia Pacific based in Delhi, Mumbai and Singapore in a variety of management roles
spanning over sales, marketing, operations and general management for 26 years. His
mission now is to share his knowledge and experiences of these 26 years with Small &
Medium Enterprises and help them improve their business. Some of the companies he has
worked as a consultant are Ayushakti, Mind Technologies, Bayer, Cello, Kris & Volkswagen.
He operates out of his office in Mumbai and can be contacted at arunsinghal@hotmail.com.
Dear Reader,
Hope you enjoyed the last issue where I had shared with you the learnings about how to get
best out of your people. One of things we talked there was keeping your people motivated in
addition to developing them and providing the organizational support.
Keeping your people motivated is probably the toughest challenge any business leader faces
whether it is a SME or a large corporation because it wears off very fast. Keeping your
people motivated at all times requires considerable skill and practice continuously in addition
to the processes and systems. Yes, it does come naturally to some but surely you also can
do it if this does not come naturally to you.
My learnings about motivation in real life started under Prem Kamath in Hindustan Unilever.
Prem was then the Branch Manager and I a new Area Manager in his branch. He taught us
how we can motivate our sales team by taking interest in their personal development.
Next milestone in real life learnings came working under Pramod Lele in Johnson & Johnson!
He demonstrated the genuine “taking care of you” attitude and one found that tremendous
source of motivation. Came along Shripad during the same time as a colleague who
reiterated the same attitude and that worked wonders in keeping people motivated
Somewhere in J&J learned about “finding people doing things right” and saw wonders of that
when I moved to Mulund factory where the challenges was to motivate the unionized
workers to improve productivity. Simple recognition system did wonders and you some time
wondered at power of simplicity and genuineness!
Most recent learnings have been from Sebastian Schraeer of Volkswagen as a client. He
lived the ability to think and say things in most positive way especially when the situation
was not positive and keeps you working against the odds to get to your goal.
So, let me attempt to summarize these in next few pages for you to try & see their impact!
Building Businesses, People, Health & Wealth successfully over 30 years

3. Enrichmentors Business Review April 2013
Keeping your people motivated
Insights while working for Hindustan Unilever,
Johnson & Johnson and Volkswagen
This people management paper details the following aspects of getting the best
out of your people.
 What is required to keep your people motivated?
 How do you use these to keep your people motivated?
 When do you use these tools?
 Where can you use these tools?
 How much?
What is required to keep your people motivated?
There are many factors that can be used to keep people motivated and many theories. I will
only talk about the factors I have personally seen to work in my career of over 30
years. Some of them are as follows
Some Motivational Factors
Incentives
& Rewards
Being
Recognition
Listened
Motivation
Personal
Larger Vision
Development
Freedom
Don’t you feel motivated when
 You get an extra pay in cash or kind for a performance delivered over the agreed
plans?
 Your boss says hello to you with a smile and also says nice things about you in public
for the good things you have done?
 Your boss takes personal interest in your development and provides you appropriate
opportunities?
 You get adequate freedom to do your own work without being watched all the time?
 You know that each brick you are laying every day will build a monument like Tajmahal
 Your voice is being heard in the organization and acted upon appropriately
If these motivate you, will they not motivate your people!
Building Businesses, People, Health & Wealth successfully over 30 years

4. Enrichmentors Business Review April 2013
How do you use these to keep your people motivated? When? Where? How much?
Allow me now to share with you how I have used each of these factors in my work life so far.
Incentives & Rewards
Most successful use of the incentives and rewards, I found and used, was for the sales team
in Johnson & Johnson
Each salesperson had a monthly, quarterly and annual target, to keep it simple, and he
received an incentive every month, quarter and annually for meeting and exceeding his
targets. More they exceeded higher they got and that worked like a silent supervisor
allowing us change the role of their managers to coaches than supervisors.
You can also design an incentive and reward system for any function where the targets can
be set quantitatively and results measured objectively. The incentive budget for the
total year needs to be 20-30% of the fixed pay to be effective. It can be equally split
into the monthly, quarterly and annual payouts. Each time period pay out should be
based on clear criteria which you want them to focus on.
The targets need to set realistically so that 70% of the people can achieve it. The results and
incentives needs to be calculated within 30 days maximum, communicated and paid
out. While communicating the earnings, the missed earning opportunities should be
highlighted and they coached on how they can meet those targets and earn them.
While the incentives could be individual based, rewards should be used to drive the team
achievement. There could be rewards for achieving quarterly and annual team targets
in the form of common gifts, a team travel to a destination of choice etc
I remember that such Annual Team Travel rewards were a great motivator and the sales
team started from Goa and went to Australia over the years on achieving the annual
targets
The key in Incentive and rewards are about these being transparent, simple,
reasonable and attractive! There are many pitfalls like pushing up the target to
unreasonable levels in the hope of getting better results by just pushing them
up. Nothing fails more miserably that such unreasonable plans.
As one of my bosses in J&J, John Springford, used to say, if 70% of the incentive
plan is not being paid out, you either change the plan or the people!
Building Businesses, People, Health & Wealth successfully over 30 years

5. Enrichmentors Business Review April 2013
How do you use these to keep your people motivated? When? Where? How much?
Let me now share with you how can we use recognition as a motivational tool.
Recognition
J&J sales team recognition systems again stand out as a best practice I have seen. The
most significant element of the J&J sales team was the annual conference whose location was
the recognition of the entire team having achieved the all India sales targets. I saw the
wonders of this recognition in achieving goals every year and starting with the annual sales
conference in Goa and going on to Australia.
Every annual conference had a awards evening for which the sales team would practically die
to get a award that evening. There were awards for Best sales person of the region, Best
sales person nationally, Best Area Team, Best Region etc. etc. The criteria for these awards
were established right in the beginning of the year and accordingly the sales people and
managers were awarded the trophies in a national gathering. This whole event was so moving
that many cried every year on getting and many on not getting the awards!
Then we experimented with Recognition of the month in J&J Mulund Plant very successfully to
enthuse otherwise not so motivated people in plant management. I believe this recognition
also become something plant management looked forward to receiving every month.
You can also recognize people every week which I picked up from Getit Yellow pages where
my wife worked and we implemented for workers in Mulund for exceptional production
performance.
You can recognize people for any good work they have done any time and any way by
catching people doing right things. It is as simple as noticing your assistant doing something
that you did not expect and saying a few words along with a “Bourneville” in a public function.
This “you deserve Bourneville “ recognition was looked forward by all in one of my of latest
assignment. Even the CMD seemed to vying to get a Bourneville and why not! All us need
recognition continuously.
So catch people doing right things and recognize in any away that comes to you!
Building Businesses, People, Health & Wealth successfully over 30 years

6. Enrichmentors Business Review April 2013
How do you use these to keep your people motivated? When? Where? How much?
Let us now look at how can we use personal development as a motivational tool.
Personal Development
As mentioned previously, I saw the motivating power of taking interest in the personal
development of people very early in working life when I was the Area Manager in Hindustan
Unilever in Chennai looking after 16 salesmen and 2 sales officers.
Guided by then Branch Manager of HUL South, Prem Kamath, I would see the motivational
levels move up by simple things like discussion with the salesmen about what they wanted to
become and trying to teach a couple of things that could help them while travelling with them
in the markets.
You need to set up formalized HR processes that can help each of your managers take
genuine interest in the development of their people. One of the processes that worked was
the Career Counseling and Personal Development Planning during the Annual Performance
Review in J&J. The essence of this process goes back to my early HUL learnings. It started
with understanding the aspiration of the person and then advising him what could he become
in the company given his current performance and potential assessment. I remember first
documenting this in J&J Mulund plant with all the managers and found many of them coming
and profusely thanking me for doing it. I realized later that it requires courage of conviction of
your assessment to put in writing that “I also see that you can become a Business Head One
day and this is what needs to be done to get you there”.
The next part, naturally is to put the “things needs to done by the person and you” called
Development Plans with a time line. It is very common to load the development plan items on
the person himself. While that works to some extent, the real personal development plan is
one which also put down in that plan what you are going to do as a mentor. This requires
some real thinking and commitment on your part and that is where it becomes a motivational
tool. Now your subordinate sees you taking “real” interest in his personal development. Of
course, he is waiting to see if you are going to actually do it and that develops your credibility
or destroys it.
Personal development of people takes time, conviction in their abilities and courage to expose
yourself by giving them a chance to prove. This is not something that you can do it in a
month or even a year. It takes commitment of years, quarterly reviews on the progress on
the development plans, daily coaching with different people but rewards are fascinating.
So begin today by asking your direct reports
 Where do you want to be in your life in next 5 years?
 What can I do to help you get there?
And just do what they want you to do to help them!
Building Businesses, People, Health & Wealth successfully over 30 years

7. Enrichmentors Business Review April 2013
How do you use these to keep your people motivated? When? Where? How much?
How can Freedom work as a motivational tool?
Freedom …..to manage own work.
I asked myself when did I find myself motivated to work and when I did not! I was fortunate
to work under many business leaders who provided me the freedom to manage my own work
right from Arun Adhikari in HUL Chennai in early years, to Pramod Lele, Narendra Ambwani,
John Springford & Barry Rhein in J&J and finally Mark Wilson in Dumex (now part of DANONE
India). These were the times when I felt greatly motived to perform vs. other times where
such a freedom was missing
Providing freedom to work to each of your direct reports is a very individual thing. It requires
you to assess the degree of freedom required by each one and accordingly work with him/
her. You may need to only provide an annual goal and agree on key projects to one of them
and leave him/her alone to manage his/her work on one side. On the other side, one of them
may need to be closely monitored because s/he needs it but not because you can not work
without monitoring him/her.
The question then may be asked is how do we find out about the degree of freedom each of
your direct reports need and should be given?
I have not yet found a straight answer. My answer lies in beginning at some level of degree of
freedom based the person and his work and then keep adjusting as you go along.
Some guideline can always be used.
 Creative workers require more degree of freedom like in advertising industry
 Repetitive work require lesser degree of freedom, but not zero.
You must have the agreement on the output expected, it quality and the time of completion.
How much further you need to go into depends on the capability of the person to find the
ways to achieve the output expected of the agreed quality and timing. You can only determine
this by trials
But one thing is certain, if you do not provide appropriate degree of freedom in either
direction, the motivation levels will suffer with the feedback of either being micromanaged or
not being provided adequate support and guidance
So the best way to provide the right degree of freedom is to
 Start some where based on the type of work and the person
 Seek feedback periodically as to what help does he needs from you
 Keep adjusting degree of freedom based his needs
And you will find the right balance in few trials for sure!
Building Businesses, People, Health & Wealth successfully over 30 years

8. Enrichmentors Business Review April 2013
How do you use these to keep your people motivated? When? Where? How much?
There is no debate on the role of Vision in motivating people, yet very few use it effectively.
Vision…..of the future, shared.
The issue is the way the Vision is crafted and used. For many people Vision gets confused
with the Mission of the company, is drafted by one or very few key implementers and is
confined to the company presentations.
For a company vision to be effective motivator, it needs to be crafted by the key
implementers, set out something that these key implementers are passionate about attaining
in the 3-5 years time frame and widely shared with all the company people through a variety
of means. Let us look at how exactly can each of this be done.
The best way to craft the Vision of the Future of a company is to get its top management
team consisting of the CMD and his direct reports together and ask each of them to visualize
what would they like to hear about after 3-5 years in a news paper or TV interview about the
company. The individual visualizations then needs to be synthesized into one coherent
paragraph of few sentences which answers “what would you like to become by then?”
The key things is to capture the words that motivates the team and sets them to attain
excellence is some area. It is only excellence, market leadership etc. that usually have the
motivating capabilities to the entire company. Why would you be motivated if the Vision is
about doing something mundane and obvious. Please remember that a Vision that is SMART (
Specific, Measurable, Ambitious, Realistic and Time bound) is likely to be far more motivating.
Don’t we have the Vision like “Putting man on the moon by end the decade of 60” successfully
motivating the whole NASA in US and making it happen in spite of all odds!
I remember an interesting discussion in J&J while talking about the difference between the
Mission and Vision. For the mathematically inclined people, here is the Mission and Vision
defined. Oi stands for the ith Objective of the company like sales, profit, market share etc.
Mission = ∑ ( Oi, i=1, n)
Vision = Max (Oi, i=1, n)
Mission is about stating all that company would like to do where as Vision is one area it would
aim to excel.
A Vision has to be shared widely to be a effective motivator to all people. It can be done
through visual displays in company offices, factories, employee desks and cabins. Higher level
of engagement with Vision will require Vision Challenge sessions as done in J&J.
So check with your workers if they know the company vision and how do they feel
about it. You will know if you are using the company Vision to motivate your people
or can do better!
Building Businesses, People, Health & Wealth successfully over 30 years

9. Enrichmentors Business Review April 2013
How do you use these to keep your people motivated? When? Where? How much?
What has “Being listened” anything to do with motivating people?
Being Listened.
That is the power of being listened to!
The question now could be, so what is new about listening, I already do it.
If your really listen to you people and listen enough to motivate, try answering following
questions to know how well do you do it.
 Do you listen attentively to your people and allow them to speak fully?
 Do you concentrate on what is being said?
 Do you confirm that you are concentrating while listening- e.g. using words like “yes”,
“Hmm” etc.
 Do you repeat what you have listened in your own words and confirm the understanding.
 Do you reelect on what you have understood and mirror his feeling and mood?
Doing well as per above check list is half the job. The next stage is to agree to do something
or not do anything based on the merits of the case. Most people don’t engage in this dialogue
for the fear of saying no. My experience about saying a valid no is being as motivating as
saying a yes. Of course it needs to be genuinely valid reason.
And from there, you need to start “Walking the talk”, which essentially means implementing
what you have agreed to do.
We all forget many times, that all people are intelligent enough to see the genuine talk and
walk. More you can do genuine talk and walk following a genuine listening, more you will have
motivated people following you, ready to jump off a cliff for you, knowing well in their hearts
that you are there with them and wont let them fall.
They say that “Trust come walking and goes back on horse back!”
I will say about that Motivation comes on horse back and goes on as well on
horseback. So you need to keep doing all you can, every day.
Only good thing is that you can keep trying and people will respond every time. The
challenge is to keep the motivation levels up all the time and that requires you to
keep doing all of the above if not any more all the time.
It is one of the things you need to do daily like you eat, drink and sleep every day.
As mentioned earlier, to some it comes naturally but it can be learned by practicing
daily. Ask yourself every day, How many people did I motivate today and find
yourself on a high by motivating more people! It is viral!!
Building Businesses, People, Health & Wealth successfully over 30 years